6 Tips to Make Sure You’re Hiring the Right SEO Provider

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the sum total of everything done organically to, for and about your business’ website SO THAT WHEN PEOPLE use SEARCH engines to find businesses like yours, THEY FIND YOU. In many cases, they either find you, or they find someone else – so the stakes couldn’t be higher. SEO may sound simple enough, and it doesn’t have to be complicated – but when you’re looking to choose the right SEO provider, there are several key things to keep in mind.

Starting off, you’ll want to know what each of these terms mean: Keywords, Google’s Page-One ranking (organically), and Conversion Rate:

Keywords are the words or phrases used by people when they search for businesses like yours on search engines such as Google and Bing. Thus, choosing the most appropriate and frequently used keywords (by your targeted customers) is extremely important.

Google’s Page-One ranking means that when people search using your business’ keywords, your name will come up in the top 10 organic search listings. If your name doesn’t show up until the second page of a Google search, it’s not much good, because most people won’t go to the second page, and so your keywords probably won’t lead to a very high conversion rate.

Conversion Rate is the rate at which people who pull your business up on a search ALSO CLICK TO GO TO YOUR WEBSITE and GO TO YOUR CONTACT US PAGE. The importance of this is, obviously, paramount.

Google Page-One ranking is only one key factor that determines a good conversion rate; the quality of keyword is also critical. For example, if you own an auto repair shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota and you intend to serve customers in the Twin Cities – a few cost effective keywords for you would be “Auto Repair Minneapolis”, “Car Repair Minneapolis”, “St. Paul Auto Repair” and “Twin Cities Auto Repair.” These keywords should be optimized for your site, because people who live in and near your Minneapolis auto repair shop will likely use their city’s name (Minneapolis, St. Paul or Twin Cities, for example) in their search.

On the other hand, our research has shown us that the keyword “Twin Cities Car Repair” might not be the best choice to invest in because local customers do not use this keyword much to search for local auto repair services. Understanding these terms will help you in your very important quest to select an SEO company that delivers high-quality, and highly effective, SEO work. Here are 6 THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A PROFESSIONAL SEO COMPANY:

FIRST, look for a company that COMES UP PROMINENTLY when you Google search for SEO companies in your area. How an SEO company fares in the SEO of its own company will tell you quite a bit (though not everything) about the SEO skill and strength of that company. Watching for this will also help you filter out brokers who simply slap together quick websites and contract-out to third-party SEO companies to provide you the service.

SECOND, ask the company if they write up contracts for their SEO services. This is a great way to verify if they intend to deliver on their promises.

THIRD, ask them what kind of guarantee they offer for their service. If they SEO 10 keywords for you, how many keywords can they guarantee to rank in the top 10 for you on Google’s organic search? No one can guarantee 100% of all keyword rankings because there’re two things your SEO provider can’t control, that is the responses of Google and your competitors.

Meanwhile, a knowledgeable and skillful SEO company can deliver up to 80% of keywords; in this case 8 out of ten keywords might get ranked. And remember, make sure that this guarantee is explicitly listed in their contract.

FOURTH, ask how long (months) it will take them to get your keywords ranked where you want. SEO companies typically promise somewhere between 4-6 months. Also, ask them what the fee will be to maintain your keywords’ rankings, after your keywords are ranked. The competitiveness of each keyword will determine the rate to maintain its’ ranking. The average fee to maintain a keyword is usually around 15%-35% of the initial cost to rank the keyword in the top 10 or top 5.

FIFTH, request that they provide you with a monthly SEO progress report. This is standard procedure. Most professional SEO firms provide it, and they also follow up regularly with their clients.

SIXTH, if an SEO company requests that you to pay 100% of the SEO project fee up front, but has no written contract for the service, and/or cannot guarantee you a percentage of keyword rankings; run, don’t walk. A knowledgeable, experienced and professional SEO company should know fairly well the chances that it can get at least some of their clients’ keywords ranked in the top 10, and they should be able to stand behind their work. A fair proposal might be to accept 50% of the project fee up front (with a signed contract) and the rest once the SEO project’s specifics are successfully delivered.

These six tips will help you to identify and recognize which are the professional, high-quality, and experienced SEO companies. This should also help you to better compare services between providers before deciding which company to go with. Our SEO company provides everything we mentioned above, and more. If you’d like to see an excellent return on your investment when it comes to SEO, give our Minneapolis web design firm a call at (612) 590-8080.